


Reboot

by NorthernGhost



Series: The NoGho DLC Files [7]
Category: Horizon: Zero Dawn (Video Game)
Genre: Feels, Fluff, One Shot, Restoring memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:49:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,402
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28014216
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NorthernGhost/pseuds/NorthernGhost
Summary: Aloy has been able to give a re-constructed GAIA a body to interact with the real world, but after nearly 10 years of work, she's ready to give her something even greater: 1,000 years of lost memories.
Relationships: Aloy & Elisabet Sobeck, Aloy & GAIA (Horizon: Zero Dawn), Aloy/Talanah Khane Padish, GAIA & Elisabet Sobeck
Series: The NoGho DLC Files [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1668388
Kudos: 16





	Reboot

At the sound of the heavy, wooden door at the far end of the former storage cellar swinging open, the redhead lifted her head from one of the newly-built terminals, leaning backward slightly to glance toward the sound. Quickly, a smirk tugged at her lips as she tapped one last button on the display and turned away from the terminal, fully.

“I knew you liked to work in the dark, but would it kill you to have at least a few more lights in here?”

Aloy laughed as she made her way around one of the various tables she had set up in the center of the room, Talanah’s gaze quickly finding her amidst the mild chaos of the room.

“I’ve got all of these displays. What are you talking about?”

“ _ Real _ light, Aloy.”

The redhead rolled her eyes as she came to a stop before the Carja, wrapping her arms around her middle and clasping her hands in the small of her back.

“You Carja get really upset when you can’t see the sun.”

Talanah rolled her eyes as Aloy laughed, but planted a quick kiss on her, pulling away as she heard the sounds of someone else entering the room. When she glanced over the Carja’s shoulder, she found a single other figure slowly stepping inside, her gaze sweeping over the room’s contents.

“It’s no GAIA Prime, but…” Aloy called, shrugging.

GAIA startled slightly at the sound of her voice, but quickly adopted a soft smile, pushing the heavy door closed behind her.

“It is perfectly fine,” she replied, making her way toward them. “It is your workshop. You designed it as you saw fit.”

“You mean I settled for what I could get,” the redhead laughed dryly, shaking her head.

“It has worked, though, no?”

Aloy grinned, glancing toward Talanah, who raised one eyebrow at her.

“Why don’t you two come see?”

With that, she turned away from her wife, striding quickly between the various tables, terminals, and piles of supplies toward the terminals on the far end of the room. The other two women followed slightly slower as they watched her flit between several of the artificial screens, tapping at each of them for a moment or two before moving on to the next one.

As they came to a stop in the midst of all of them, Talanah’s lips scrunched to one side, her gaze drifting vacantly over the displays with rapidly changing and scrolling glyphs. GAIA, however, seemed particularly intrigued, her gaze moving methodically from one screen to the next.

“You have managed to remotely repair the core,” the AI woman said slowly.

“Thanks to you keeping our friend HEPHAESTUS in check.”

“It was an early build, and therefore much easier to coerce,” GAIA replied, shrugging.

“Still—life-saver.”

The redhead paused, Talanah and her sharing a quick glance as both women swallowed heavily and Aloy quickly turned back to her terminal.

“So, because of that… today’s the big day.”

“Oh?” the Carja woman replied, folding her arms over her chest.

“GAIA?” Aloy said, coming to a stop in the middle of all of the terminals, raising both eyebrows at the AI woman. “You ready?”

The bot-woman looked visibly nervous for a moment before her composure settled and she nodded, straightening her posture.

“We can always wait if you need more—”

“Waiting will do nothing but prolong what will happen today,” GAIA interrupted. “I am ready.”

Aloy paused for a moment, the corners of her lips tugging back in a small, almost sad smile, before she took a deep breath and turned back to one of the terminals to her right.

“Okay, then. You’re synched into your main servers, right?”

“I am.”

“Good, good.”

The redhead appeared to hesitate over the terminal before sighing, hanging her head and pulling her hand away from the display to turn back to the AI woman.

“A thousand years is a lot of time, GAIA,” she said softly. “Are you sure you’re ready for all of that at once?”

“I am,” she nodded, “and I must be.”

Talanah’s hand came to rest on the bot-woman’s shoulder, prompting her to glance over at the Carja, offering a small smile as she placed one hand over hers, as well.

“Okay, just—”

“Do not worry, Aloy,” GAIA insisted. “It may take me a few minutes to fully process all of that data, but I will be able to handle it.”

Finally, the redhead sighed heavily, nodding and turning back to the display before.

“Beginning synch in three… two… one…”

Aloy’s finger tapped at a button on the display before her, and the entire rectangle cleared, save for a single box in the center of it. A bar appeared in the center of it, slowly filling with white from the left to the right side as glyphs began to flicker above it faster than either of the human women could comprehend.

GAIA, however, suddenly seemed to straighten up, her eyes sliding closed.

“Everything working?”

The bot-woman nodded.

“Yes, everything is…”

GAIA suddenly trailed off as the bot’s chest seemed to heave and she staggered in place. Talanah quickly wrapped her arm around the AI woman’s shoulders, but she appeared to catch herself, remaining on her feet.

“What’s wrong? Should I pause it?”

The bot-woman’s chest continued to heave, as if she were breathing heavily, but she remained silent, her eyes closed. Aloy and Talanah exchanged concerned glances as the redhead slowly approached, swallowing nervously.

“GAIA?”

At the sound of her voice, the AI woman’s eyes slid open, once again, her gaze lifting to stare back at the gold-green hazel across from her. Although the bot was not capable of producing tears, her expression was clearly one on the verge of crying, and Aloy quickly rushed forward, bracing her hands against GAIA’s shoulders.

“Something’s wrong,” she muttered. “I’ll stop it.”

“No!”

As the redhead turned to move back to the terminal, GAIA’s hand reached out, grabbing one wrist and bringing her to a stop.

“No… don’t… don’t go…”

Confusion creased Aloy’s face for a moment before her a look of realization came over her and all color drained from her skin.

Of course.

She had forgotten.

The AI woman squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, once again, before straightening her stance, keeping one hand securely held around the redhead’s wrist.

GAIA had forgotten, too, but not by choice.

Now they were both painfully aware and remembering.

The AI woman opened her eyes, again, staring back at the face across from her, the features all too familiar, particularly now with ten years additional age than when she had first seen her, again. Slowly, the redhead stepped closer, her eyes remaining locked on the bot’s, while GAIA found her attention restricted to the bot’s vision, temporarily assigning all other processes to background functions… except for those that told her, screamed at her, that she was  _ feeling _ right then.

Of course, it was all tens of thousands of processes and stored banks of processes that had already run, but to the AI woman, they felt as if they had just happened for the first time in that moment.

A thousand years of knowledge did nothing to temper them.

A moment later, the bot-woman released the redhead’s wrist, only to shakily lift her arms, pulling her into an embrace. The redhead returned it in turn, wrapping her arms securely around GAIA’s back as the AI woman leaned into her more. The sensors on the bot could detect the warmth of the redhead’s body heat and the sensation of her clothing rubbing at her chin where it had come to rest on her shoulder, but GAIA quickly found herself lost in them, reassigning all functions to process them.

With each new awareness, however, the heavy feeling only built.

The sensations only seemed to give it greater weight.

A thousand years meant nothing in that moment.

“Just like you said you wanted, right?”

Finally, all of the processes, the  _ emotions _ , seem to unshackle themselves inside the AI woman at the sound of the redhead’s voice in the bot’s ear. The bot-woman’s grip tightened around her, even more, although she took care to not accidentally over-exert her strength around the warm body before hers.

“You remembered.”

A soft laugh sounded in her ear as the redhead’s hand slowly ran across her back.

“A thousand years doesn’t mean a thing to me, too.”


End file.
